Operation Walk Maryland's team of six orthopedic surgeons completed 53 joint replacement surgeries during a four-day medical mission in Guyana, according to DemeraraWaves.com.
Here are six things to know:
1. The nonprofit medical service organization performed knee and hip replacement surgeries on 47 patients at Georgetown (Guyana) Public Hospital Corp.
2. Of the 53 total replacements done, 35 were knee replacements and 18 were hip replacements.
3. Operation Walk Maryland Co-founder Harpal (Paul) Khanuja, MD, led the Guyana mission. The trip was the organization's ninth international project and its first in Guyana.
4. The nonprofit gathered enough donations to provide the surgeries, which would have cost a minimum of $200,000 per patient, at no cost.
5. Operation Walk Maryland plans to return to Guyana in January 2019 for patient follow-up examinations and to determine the possibility of developing a local Guyana program for more patients to access.
6. Dr. Khanuja is the chief of adult reconstruction hip and knee replacement surgery at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore. He also serves as chair of orthopedic surgery at Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center.